Texas Man Sentenced to Prison for Bank Fraud After Obtaining Over $2 Million

LITTLE ROCK—A Texas man was sentenced today for defrauding an Arkansas bank by creating fraudulent invoices. Matthew Beasley, 47, of McKinney, Texas, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge D.P. Marshall, Jr.

Beasley served as President of a construction company in Conway, Arkansas, known as Cobas, Inc. Cobas maintained a line of credit with Centennial Bank. When Cobas performed construction work for other companies, Cobas would send invoices for the work they had performed. While waiting for those invoices to be paid, which could take up to 60 days, Cobas would submit the invoices to Centennial Bank, which would advance a percentage of the invoice amount to Cobas.

In August of 2016, Beasley began submitting fraudulent invoices to Centennial Bank in order to receive advance payments. He submitted several fraudulent invoices each month from August through December of 2016, resulting in a total of 17 fraudulent invoices for approximately $2,911,617.

Beasley pleaded guilty to an Information charging him with one count of bank fraud on September 18, 2018. In addition to 36 months in prison, Judge Marshall sentenced Beasley to two years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment. Beasley was also ordered to pay $2,019,773.36 in restitution.

The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service – Office of Inspector General and Conway Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jana Harris.

This news release, as well as additional information about the office of the
United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, is available on-line at
http://www.justice.gov/edar

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